Grants and Writing Resources for Macquarie University

For 2025 the Australian Government's New Colombo Plan gave scholarships to eight Macquarie students bound for Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, India and Fiji. Their degrees ranged from actuarial studies and artificial intelligence to psychology, marketing and law.

Funding for Graduate Research

Higher degree research candidates can apply once during candidature to the Postgraduate Research Fund for up to A$6,000 toward work that adds value to a project, such as a trip to present at a conference or a visit to a laboratory. The fund runs two rounds a year, and a PGRF grant-writing workshop on Zoom in July 2026 prepared applicants for the first 2027 round.

Faculties add their own money. The Faculty of Arts Graduate Research Student Essential Funding Scholarship covers essential research costs up to A$1,000 for MRes students and A$5,000 for MPhil and PhD students. Macquarie Business School offers up to A$10,000 for workshops, training, transcript services, colloquia and conference attendance. In Science and Engineering and in Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, schools and departments fund their own candidates.

Three Minute Thesis

PhD and MPhil candidates, including those whose thesis is under submission, can enter Macquarie's 3MT competition, which held its 2025 live final in September; MRes students compete on campus but can't progress further. Each faculty sends up to three finalists to a live final with a People's Choice vote. The winner goes on to the University of Queensland's Asia-Pacific 3MT, and prize money is paid toward research costs.

Writing Support

Undergraduates and postgraduate coursework students can talk to WriteWISE leaders, senior students trained to advise on academic writing, referencing, unpacking an assignment question and research strategy. Chat online on weekdays and Saturday afternoons. Or drop in at Learning Connect on the entry level of 18 Wally's Walk, where consultations run 20 to 25 minutes.

Graduate researchers have a separate set of writing resources: faculty-based Research Writing Groups and Academic Literacy for Research Students, a web-based course from the Linguistics Department with modules on the thesis proposal, the literature review and the research article. The Graduate Research Development Team also runs writing retreats. A half-day writing retreat works in the Shut Up and Write style, three hours of silent writing toward a goal each participant brings, on campus or on Zoom, and a one-day online writing retreat pairs two quiet writing blocks with consultations for candidates who can't come to campus.

For a final edit before submission, our PhD-level editors work with Macquarie students at every level. See our Macquarie University dissertation and thesis editing and Macquarie University essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• The Literature Review: Avoiding Intellectual Overwhelm
• The "Ugly First Draft": Reducing Performance Anxiety